When Nulla entered the guild, he hurried over to the quest board. Glancing at the requests, skipping the boring or out-of-rank requests, Nullas eye was caught on a D-rank request marked with a sticker. The sticker read, “RANK UP REQUEST”. Intrigued, Nulla grabbed the request and headed to the counter.
“Excuse me, can I ask something?”
“Yes.”
“Why does this have a sticker?”
“Many, many D ranks have failed. We don’t know enough, so we can’t up the difficulty. Instead, we advertise it as “Probably C rank”. Upon completion, you can skip straight to the C rank test.”
“Sounds good. I’ll get going them.”
∅∅∅
Walking into Cantebury, Nulla wondered why so many people were so happy despite being ‘terrorized’. Checking the time, and seeing it’s a fair while until the meeting with the town chief, Nulla decides to walk around and get some details on the monster.
Passing through, Nulla noticed most of them made sure to keep their conversations away from the monster when he was nearby. Deciding to see what’s going on, Nulla began to sneak around invisible, where he found a pair discussing the monster.
“Thank Mor it’s here. It’s doing-”
“Shush! You never know who’s listening.”
“Right, yeah. So-”
Leaving as they moved on to other things than the monsters, Nulla was just happy he got something.
Checking the time again, Nulla dispelled the magic and walked to the meeting.
“Hello! I’m the chief of this humble little village. I take it you’re the new adventurer.”
“Yes, I am. Do you have any details so I won’t end up like my predecessors?”
“The monster fears fire, so if you can go to its cave and bring a lot of fire. Why, back when it was directly attacking us and not hiding in its cave, we had to scare it off with the flames.;”
“Where’s the cave?”
“Due east of town. There’s a small trail over, but with the monster controlling the woods, it hasn't been maintained for a while.”
“Thank you. I’ll return when it’s slain.”
“I hope so.”
∅∅∅
Arriving at the cave, Nulla walked in. Immediately, a ferocious beast lunged at him. [Time Stopping], Nulla inspected it. Confirming that it was the beast, Nulla killed it. He was left confused though. It was a D-Rank, so how had so many fallen to it? As Nulla scanned the skill list, a HE agent called to him.
“Hello, Sir. I am Agent Freyr. I’ve come with a request.”
“Will it take long?” Nulla didn’t look away from the body with his response.
“Not long. Athena asked me to ask you if you could prepare something to help with perception blocking.”
“Here,” Nulla threw over a blueprint. “Do you know what happened to the adventurers here?”
“I believe they were kidnapped. An abundance of enslaved adventurers have appeared in the black market lately, coinciding with the monster.”
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Nulla thought for a minute. The monster had “strengthened by fire”, and “resurrective immortality”. The townspeople appeared to worship Mor. Mor, god of Monsters.
Nulla had an idea. Staring, Nulla burst into a smile.
“I got a request for HE. Recover the kidnapped adventurers.”
“Understood. But, why are you smiling?”
“I got a town to burn to the ground. The chief told me to bring fire, which would lead to the monster being stronger. Combined with its [resurrective immortality], I would kill it, be exhausted, and thus easily captured. Why, the monster is even [Controlled] by the chief.”
“Will it not revive?”
“By the looks of it, my presence sent the soul off to the afterlife.”
“But people reincarnate?”
“Then it does that. I don’t study the afterlife, or whatever happens after death. Now, you have two choices, assist me in destroying the town, or head off immediately. What’s your-”
“I’m calling HE agents.”
“Perfect. Can you try bombing the outskirts of town? I think it would be fun.”
∅∅∅
“I’ve come to collect my reward. Unless you didn’t prepare it. After all, you’re going to kidnap me. So I’ve come to burn your town to the ground!”
Terrified, the chief backed away and tried to escape. He threw the door open and ran out, Nulla walking behind. The citizens watched, unnerved and some joined the chief in fleeing.
But when the explosion rang out, they all began to run around. Nulla continued to walk, although with a smile toward the nearest individual. As they fled, they somehow couldn’t flee, with Nulla catching and teleporting them. Those who had tried fleeing outside of town were captured as well, with some other agents running after and capturing those who tried hiding in town.
In maybe an hour, the entire town of Cantebury was depopulated, with no casualties and only two buildings destroyed.
Nulla confirmed with the HE agents that the entire town was captured, and that questioning was going to be done soon. Satisfied, before realizing something.
“How am I going to get confirmation?”
“Threaten the chief? Forge it?”
Taking the agent's advice, Nulla crafted a spell, drawing on the Akasha Records of Arcadia, copying the signature of the chief down onto the confirmation sheet and headed back to Alreast.
∅∅∅
The chief woke up in a dark room, hands tied together behind his back. Before he had any time to orient himself, the door was thrown open and he was dragged out. He was thrown into a chair, across a table from an officer.
“Do you know why you’re here?”
The chief remains silent.
“Not willing to talk? Oh well. Then, let me tell you something. There’s a town, Cantebury, that’s been found to be capturing and selling adventurers. I hear the mastermind,” the officer leans in and whispers, “will be executed.” Sitting back, the officer continued, “Since you’re a citizen, I can guarantee that you will be let off with a slap on the wrist if you testify who’s responsible.”
“What’ll happen to the chief?” the chief asked.
“If they can testify that they were forced to, or something similar that there’s a power behind what they did, we can give them a slap on the wrist as well.”
The chief mulled it over. Could he do it? Convince them that they had forced him to do it?
The officer watched with a blank expression, hiding the smile brewing inside.
The chief lifted his head, and with a fake sob in his voice, asked, “I- I’m the chief. Bu- but! I had to! Our town, it was so poor. We couldn’t feed our young, so many starved! Without the benevolence given to us, we would be nothing. We had to pay for this gift though, with the captured adventurers!”
Nodding along, the officer pulled out a notepad and began to write something down. The chief continued, smoothly weaving the story of desperation and putting all the blame on the benefactor.
When the chief was finished, the officer smiled.
“Thank you,” the officer said before the chief was dragged back to the room from before, although now somewhat furnished.
∅∅∅
“Confirmed. Congratulations, you now qualify for the C-Rank promotion test. When would you like it to be scheduled for?” the receptionist asked Nulla.
“Is now available?”
“Yes. Just head through that door, and your proctor is waiting inside.”
Thanking the receptionist, Nulla headed inside.